healthy relationship dynamic

Far from being a sign of a weak relationship, spending a healthy amount of time apart can actually be a really good thing. As the healthy relationship model in the series posts highlighted, the healthiest relationships are actually those where each partner has half of their life inside the relationship (or rather spent together) and half outside of the relationship (or spent apart).

Spending time outside of the relationship can be invaluable, it teaches us not to take our partner for granted, to value quality time, it allows us to share experiences outside of the relationship in conversations with one another and it allows us to retain our individuality and independence whilst not undermining each partners healthy level of dependence on one another.

Last week we finished looking at the unhealthy relationship behaviors, this week we begin exploring how to cultivate healthy relationships.

How to cultivate healthy relationships

Cultivating a healthy relationship is not complex but it does take effort and ideally commitment from both partners to want to actively work on the relationship. This isn’t to say that by adopting these behaviors yourself you can’t improve things, but rather that for the best results both partners should be willing to work together – with shared responsibility – for making the relationship the healthiest it can be.

Unsurprisingly the healthy relationship model is very balanced, with equal times spend both together and apart. This works to promote a sense of identity and independence outside of the relationship whilst the shared contact encourages inter-connectedness and provides sufficient emotional and mental support to the other.

Healthy relationship behaviors

The good news is that there are also many relationship behaviors that we can adopt to foster a more healthy, happy and balanced relationship.